Sunday, 10 March 2013

Despite all of their recent adventures, I very much doubt that "being held at gunpoint by a little girl" figured Aki and Kai's expectations, but that's exactly where we find ourselves as this week's Robotics;Notes opens.

Thanks to this and a face-to-face encounter with the AR avatar of Kou Kimijima, we get to learn the truth behind Misaki's behaviour - how she saved Aki and Kai amongst others during the SS Anemone incident by killing the living, breathing Kimijima, only to find herself haunted by his virtual presence to the point where he effectively turned her into his slave. Even in the face of all of this information (oh, and that gun being pointed at her), Aki still refuses to have her enthusiasm for justice dimmed as she swears that she'll do whatever it takes for her sister and beyond - a stirring monologue made all the more pertinent by the fact that the whole thing was streamed across the Internet.

It's thanks to that bit of surreptitious streaming that the entire Robotics Club team are quickly reassembled in the hangar that houses GunPro-1, and what begins as a milling of friendly faces (joined ultimately by Kai and Aki in spectacular fashion) soon begins to morph into a coherent plan to use the GunPro-1 to foil Kimijima's plans to launch a black hole bomb and eradicate humanity. Can they really do that using a clunky old robot? Well, that's the point of the show's finale, so let's hope so shall we?

Although this is very much Robotics;Notes in top gear as it blends friendships, robotics, conspiracy and the like into its mix, there's something that's still not particularly satisfying about the whole thing, largely revolving around the fact that a lot of the major points of its narrative don't make much sense - it feels rather like a "join the dots" picture where all of the dots connect up soundly enough, but the picture you reveal once you've done so is a jumbled mess. Perhaps it's because I've struggled to become fully invested in its characters or scenario, but there are too many logical or character-based holes in what I'm seeing (particularly surrounding Misaki) to work for me - maybe I can put that to one side and at least enjoy what should be a rip-roaring finale, but it seems guaranteed that the show as a whole is going to be no classic in my book.